December 20th 2014. Pick of the Day.
New York City's premiere resource for classic film screenings in the metropolitan area. Offering reviews, recommendations, venues and a host of links keeping classic film and the silver screens alive.
So yeah, it's below freezing in our fair metropolis. I can fully attest to this fact not merely by checking my Weather Channel app, but after having trundled forth in this air so frigid molecular activity has itself given a second thought before proceeeding. Professor DeGrasse Tyson will back me up on the science of that last statement. In any event, header be damned, let's get to the day's doings.
Continuing series this day include Screwball Romance, Rated RXmas: Holiday Classics, Naughty and Nice and Cronenberg, all at IFC Center, Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich and Cain at Film Forum, Let There Be Light: The Films of John Huston at the Film Society, the trib to Robert Altman at MoMA, and the jollily-monickered Yuletide program entitled Xmas Chopping at the Nitehawk Cinema. The halide-based hopscotchery be thus;
IFC Center
THE LADY EVE (1941) Dir; Preston Sturges
Rated RXmas: Holiday Classics, Naughty and Nice
WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) Dir; Michael Curtiz
GREMLINS (1984) Dir; Joe Dante
THE BROOD (1980) Dir; David Cronenberg
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) Dir; Frank Capra
Film Forum
Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich and Cain
REAR WINDOW (1954) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1950) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Let There Be Light: The Films of John Huston
THE MISFITS (1961) Dir; John Huston
BEAT THE DEVIL (1953) Dir; John Huston
FREUD: THE SECRET PASSION (1962) Dir; John Huston
PHOBIA (1980) Dir; John Huston
MoMA
THREE WOMEN (1977) Dir; Robert Altman
THE PERFECT COUPLE (1979) Dir; Robert Altman
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980) Dir; Lewis Jackson
Nitehawk Cinema
CHOPPING MALL (1984) Dir; Jim Wynorski
Today's Pick? Much on the sked tempts today, Xmas-themed, Evil-Xmas-themed, and Not-At-All-Xmas-themed contest for my favor. Ultimately the first two categories cancel each other out. Sorry CHOPPING MALL, I was really pulling for you.
It really comes down to two series offering multiple screenings at discounted pricing. Both celebrating a master of the cinematic, somewhat singluar lifeforms who would perhaps have found themselves without a place in the world had the moving image not been invented. Alfred Hitchcock was something of an introverted explorer, mapmaker and groundbreaker. John Huston his extroverted other. I would award today's Pick to the latter master filmmaker if the discounted multi-pass included at least one extra masterpiece, or even a classic in need of rediscovery. I can't boast that grade of FREUD or PHOBIA, interesting oddities though they be. So I gotta go with a two-fer that's well-nigh impossible to deny.
Big Al's REAR WINDOW and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN unspool today as part of Film Forum's deliciously poisoned trib to four massively influential noir authors, Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich and Cain! Remember the essential lesson of film noir: trust your instincts. No wait, is it don't trust your instincts? Oh Hell, Jane Greer and Marie Windsor just showed up. Lesson shmesson, ingore me and just head to the Hitch two-fer at the Forum. If survive this we'll talk.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in December '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview and other audio tomfoolery check out the podcast, and follow me on SoundCloud! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too!
P. S. We're fully entwined in winter's embrace, and believe it or not some of our fellow NY'ers have still yet to be made whole in the wake of the 2012 storm. Should you be feeling charitable please visit the folks at OccupySandy.net, follow their hammer-in-hand efforts to restore people's lives, and donate/volunteer if you have the inclination and availability. Be a collective mensch, Stockahz!
